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Glite Dictionary
raw sienna

raw sienna

1 7.3
A yellow-brown paint color used in art
  • noun
  • /rɔː ˈsiːnə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : siena natural
  • The artist mixed raw sienna with white to create a beautiful, warm skin tone for the portrait.
  • raw sienna and yellow
  • wash of raw sienna
  • raw sienna oil

So I use raw Sienna in burnt orange in my crease.

Examples

  • Like look at that, taking some raw Sienna on this side.

  • Well, let's just start with raw Sienna, this one.

  • So I use raw Sienna in burnt orange in my crease.

    Edward Avila

  • For her landscape painting, she layered raw sienna to capture the rich soil of the autumn scenery.

  • In her watercolor set, raw sienna is essential for achieving natural earth tones in her artwork.

Synonyms

yellowish brown
vsraw sienna
2.8

A medium to dark brown with a little yellow in it

is a natural artist pigment used in painting rather than a general color
to ocher
vsraw sienna
  • US
8.4

To coat something with a yellow-brown earth pigment

is the pigment itself rather than the action of coating

How Brown

raw umber
  • Specialized
1 7.7
burnt sienna
1 6.7
raw sienna
  • Specialized
1 7.3
yellow ocher
  • Specialized
1 6.7

Surface Forms

raw sienna singular
raw siennas plural

Morphology

raw + sienna

The meaning 'a natural, unprocessed yellowish-brown pigment' is directly and compositionally derived from 'raw' (unprocessed/natural) modifying 'sienna' (a reddish-brown pigment). The adjective+noun pattern is a regular, cross-linguistic composition, so a B1 learner who knows both words would be able to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Raw sienna is named after Siena, a city in Italy where artists dug a yellow-brown earth to make paint. The word raw means the earth was used 'as is' and not 'burnt', so the pigment kept its warm, natural color, which is why raw sienna means a natural yellowish-brown paint color.